Omaha daily bee., 1887-05-02

visible as a spot, aud possibly its shape
might be made out by close study of tho
shSdowsi IL cast and Its varying appearance
under different illuminations. In fact, it
is by the shadows of objects upon 1t that
we learn more of the moons surface than
in any other way; Owing to the absence
OF any appreciable atmosphere shadows
upon the moon are as black as ink. A
building like the Washington monument
standing on the lunar surface would be
invisible to us when the sun shone per.
pendicular upon it, But with the rising
or setting sun it would cast long spire
of shadow that the Lick telescope might
be able to show.
LUNAR VOLCANIC REGION.
OF course city on the moon would be
visible, and would probably be recogniz.
able as such. Cut piece of paper an
inch long and quarter of an inch broad
and hold it six or seven inches from the
eye. 1t will occupy nearly the exact
angular diminsions that the city Of New
York would have II it stood upon the
moon aud was viewed from the earth
with telescope magnifying 5000 diam
eters. Then try to mark upon this bit of
paper in their true relative proportions
the streets and principal buildings of the
city, and you will have queer notion Of
the amount of detail that might be ex.
pcctcd to be seen.
But objects would not appear rs clear
as they would to the naked eye at
similar real distance, owing to the loss of
light in the telescope and the necessary
imperfections of the image. And, while
the power mentioned could doubtless be
used upon the Lick telescope, yet in prac.
tice it hardly ever would be used, and
better results could probably be attained
with powers of 1000 or | 800, or in many
cases of only 1000 with which powers
the apparent distance of the moon would
be respectively 120, 100 and 240 miles.
But astronomers were long ago con.
vinced that there are no cities upon the
moon and no inhabitants to build them.
Some, believing that the Creator would
not have formed so complete world
merely to shed little reflected light
upon the earth, may think there must
been inhabitants there in the long. past
ages of lunar history who may have left
some traces Of their presence. However
this may be, the discovery of artificial
works is not needed to make the moon
interesting. Tossed and torn as it has
been by the most terrific volcanic forces,
the face Of our satellite presents to us as
strange a world as the most grotesque
Imagination could picture. Craters forty
and fifty miles across; circular plains
completely ringed and shut in by giant
mountain peaks; strange shining noun
tains, whose mighty tlanks fairly blaze
when the sunshine strikes them so that
thought he saw them actually vomiting
fire; empty bottoms Of long driedup
seas, chasms mile wide, 100 miles or
more long and of frightful depth-with
all these features to excite the wonder
and even the admiration of the beholder,
for the moon is very beautiful in the
telescope, there is no danger that the
lunar revelations of the great Lick glass
Will lack interest, even If they only serve
to strengthen the evidence that our bril-.
liant satellite is often all but the skeleton
of a world.
Then comes the planet Mars, which in.
terests us in a very different way, for
Mars is not improbably an inhabited
world. The question of its actual cond-
ton as to habitableness is still under dc.
bate; and here the great Californian tele.
scope may be able to furnish decisive ev-
idence one way or the other if properly
used. We already know that Mars has
an atmosphere, and we can hardly be
mistaken in saying that it possesses
water, and that differently colored re-
gionS we see upon it are lands and seas.
Around its poles we perceive white
patches that wax and wane with the
seasons. What can they be but snow
fields' Obscuring large portions of its
which are seen to slowly change their
position, and some times to gradually
melt away. What are these but clouds
floating in the atmosphere of the planet?
Within the past ten years curious streaks,
called canals have been seen at times
upon Mars. They certainly are not
canals in the ordinary meaning of that
term; just what they are we do not know.
There is some evidence that their appear
ance and disappearance depend upon the
changes of the seasons of Mars. Into
the mysteries of the most interesting
world-and the reader will at once per-
ceive that it is full OF the greatest inter-
est-the Lick telescope should enable as
tronomers to penetrate much further than
they have yet been able to do.
The planets Jupiter and Saturn have
also assumed fresh interest of late, es-
pecially the former, on account of the
puzzling appearances that they have pre-
sented. The huge red spot on Jupiter,
which was first seen in 1878, is still visi
BILE, having in the past three or four years
undergone very singular fluctuations of
form and visibility. 1t is not likely, as
has been suggested, that this strange
spot is portion of the red-hot surface
Of the great planet made visible to us by
the withdrawal of cOncealing envelope
of clouds; yet it can hardly be doubted
that it has something to do with the
planetary development of that distant
world, which is now evidently passing
through the earlier stages of what Nigh.
oAa a-